Well, that kinda sucks.
Picasa may not be the best free photo app, but it works perfectly for my needs. Losing the integration between the desktop editor and my web albums (I’ve got 10 years worth) is going to be a major pain. I guess that’s just the way it goes in the world of free software, especially when it belongs to Google. 
You won’t lose anything you’ve uploaded to Picasa, though. It’s still there, just being shifted to Google Photos. I just checked my pictures and I can view and download them on Google Photos just fine.
Another way for a company to push you to the cloud.
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
It sucks for the way I show my pictures in message boards.
I too have been with that service for years and it is so quick & easy to only save the pictures I have processed to a reasonable size and then show them as albums.
So far I have not figured out how I am going to do what I now do in my CritterCam thread. CritterCam Thread
Also, on other boards where I can hot link pictures it is even easier & faster…
Like most people, I won’t fight that hard to go look at pictures on most hosting sites. AND, I HATE the adds & BS on sites like Photobucket. Picasa is nice, clean & simple.
Grrrrr
Aw, this makes me sad. I’ve got both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements (and access to Lightroom if I want it), but I’ve preferred to do quick editing with Picasa, saving the other stuff for when more complicated things need to be done. It was a great editor for about 90% of my needs.